What a mess

It look’s like there’s some work to do whenever the weather improves.  The tree damaged the one bed pretty badly and it will need to be repaired.  Fortunately it’s the bed designated for the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, so I’ve got at least 2 months to get it fixed.  I’m taking mental notes of the tasks that need to be done this spring.  Rake up the oak leaves in the yard that I wasn’t able to get to before the snows, shred them and put them in the compost pile.  Cut up the rest of the tree into logs, stack, shred the branches for mulch. Restack the compost bin, take out the usable compost, spread into the beds.

The good news, if there’s good news in February, is this:  It’s not January, and the extended very cold weather is mostly over.  High temperatures of 40 degrees beats a high of 15 degrees any day.  The other good news is: my pond came back up.  Last year this area saw one of the worst droughts on record.  August and September saw about two inches of total rain.  The pond level went down about 4 feet below the overflow.  Stumps were out of the water and the surface area was about ½ normal – it was hardly a pond anymore.  When the snow and ice melted the pond came up a few inches, but left the ground saturated.  We got a good soaker last Saturday, the inflow of water became a small torrent, and in a few hours time the pond had come up about two feet.  Another rain yesterday brought it up even more, and now it looks like a real pond, even though it has a way to go.  Now that the ice is gone I’m waiting to see if the catfish and bluegill made it through all this.  It’s a deep pond so I’m hoping for the best.